The present invention relates to industrial automation. More specifically, the present invention relates to RFID enabled dynamic object verification with GTIN decoded from EPC.
Traditionally in logistics operations, an object (e.g., a case or box or pallet) is uniquely identified by a license plate number (LPN). The LPN is normally printed on the object in a barcode format. For each LPN, a record needs to be stored in a logistics database table for mapping this unique number to a product type control number, also known as a Global Trade Item Number (GTIN). During shipping, each object loaded onto a truck container will need to be barcode scanned and verified against the product types on the shipment list. Additionally, the mapping between the unique IDs and the product types has to be preceded in the logistics database table. In this scenario, the verification process read in the unique IDs and retrieves the GTINs for them from the logistics database table. Then the GTINs are used for matching the GTINs on the shipment list.
In recent years, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology is used for identifying the objects in logistics operations. Normally a unique ID is stored in an RFID tag, and then the RFID tag is applied to the object. When multiple objects within the proximity of an RFID reader antenna, the unique IDs associated with the objects are captured and sent to the logistics software system for verification. This process generally improves the efficiency of data collection at shipping time.
In one example, the unique IDs need to be assigned to the shipment objects. If each object in the shipment list is already associated with a unique ID that is specific to the case, when the case unique ID is read during the loading process, the unique ID can be used to match the unique ID in the shipment list. However, this verify-by-unique ID process requires the case pickup to be very accurate. In other words, each case to be picked up for shipment is required to have the exact unique IDs on the shipment list. A pickup worker cannot just load any ten cases of tomato soup for shipment, but must load those exact ten cases identified in the shipping list. Finding the right product items by a pickup worker from their numbers can be extremely difficult and prohibitive.
For the above example to work, often, however, the unique IDs are generated at the factory where it may be unknow to which manufacturer's warehouse a given product is destined. Therefore, it has been difficult to provide such a mapping between the unique ID generated at the factory and the unique ID associated with a shipment at the warehouse.
Accordingly, what is desired are improved methods and apparatus for solving the problems discussed above. Additionally, what is desired are improved methods and apparatus for reducing some of the drawbacks discussed above.